No agreement was reached on 7 December on changing the provisions of the Working Time Directive with respect to the opt-out from the 48-hour average working week. EU employment ministers met in Brussels to consider the EC's proposals for amending the Directive but no agreement was reached.

The majority of member states, including Britain, Germany and The Netherlands, backed the proposals to allow employees to opt-out under terms agreed between employers and trade unions, or otherwise with the employee's consent. However, five states, Belgium, France, Greece, Spain and Sweden opposed the proposals, arguing for the opt-out arrangement to be completely phased out. The opposition was sufficient to block the proposals.

Nevertheless, agreement was reached in other areas of the proposals, i.e. the lengthening of the reference period used to calculate average working hours, the taking of compensatory rest and the new definition of on-call time.

The difficult issue of the opt-out now goes to the European Parliament where it is expected that MEPs will have their say early in 2005. In view of the Resolution of the European Parliament, passed by a large majority on 11 February 2004, which called for the phasing-out of the opt-out, the survival of the opt-out is increasingly uncertain.

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Sources:
europa.eu.int/...=en